A steep hillside drops abruptly away beneaththis deck, leaving the
structure itself about the only place where flowers can grow. Thanks to
good design, the flowers grown here give an impression of profusion
without taking up much space. Most of the annuals you see here actually
grow outside the rail in long planter boxes that completely line the
deck. But this perimeter bloom is fattened up considerably with
container plants set into angles and corners inside the rail.

To keep the boxes light, Portland gardenerJuanita Dickson filled
them with a mixture of peat, garden soil, vermiculite, and sand--renewed
every two years. She enriches it with timed-release complete fertilizer
at the beginning of each planting season, adding liquid complete
fertilizer once in the middle of the season.

Four years old when these photographswere taken, the deck was
designed by Mrs. Dickson's daughter, Elizabeth Dickson Fetsch, with
help from the Sunset book How to Plan & Build Decks (Lane Publishing
Co., Menlo Park, Calif., 1980; $6.95). It was her first such project.

The deck is all cedar, treated with pentachlorophenolwhen it was
built, then scrubbed with a chlorine bleach solution and coated with a
waterproof sealer three years later. Though the deck has held up well,
the planter boxes are showing some signs of decay; removing the soil
each winter and treating the boxes with wood sealer would make them last
longer.